Chapter 12

The operations compartment was quiet. Innes had been here most of the night, working through the handover, a pile of new responsibilities that came with his temporary command. Sleep had been sporadic at best, with four hours snatched between reviewing duty rosters, untangling the administrative backlog Wexler had left behind, and trying to make sense of inspection schedules that did not add up.

The backlog was deliberate. That much, Innes was sure of. Everything from the past few days had been allowed to pile up: correspondence, approvals, and requisitions that would come due just after Wexler’s departure. A parting gift for his replacement.

It was the earlier gaps that Innes was having trouble parsing. There were inspection waivers with barely plausible justifications, scheduling conflicts that allowed a few ships that tripped red flags to go through uninspected ... and, of course, the obvious deference Wexler had been paying to the Meryd ships Innes had already noticed.

Wexler had documented reasons for everything in the log, and everything was technically defensible, but the totality of it bothered Innes.

Unfortunately, reading all of the reports and logs left by the lieutenant made it clear to Innes that Wexler was actually very competent. He’d been very careful in everything he’d done, and there was nothing that Innes could point to that was actually wrong. What was worse, the things that were not off were by the book and damn near perfect.

Which only went to show that Wexler could have been a damn fine officer if he had wanted to be.

He was making his third pass through the inspection logs when Lieutenant Roberts appeared in the doorway. Roberts, the only other officer besides himself and Wexler assigned to the detachment, was a slender man with light-brown eyes and a perpetually serious expression. He commanded the sixteen Marines sent along as part of the detachment. While he outranked Innes, they were in separate chains of command. A Marine officer could not be placed in charge of a Navy vessel or detachment.

Innes had actually planned on stopping in and talking to the lieutenant since it was something of an awkward situation. Normally, it would not be an issue, as an ensign would never be left in command of something like this, but these were unique times, and Innes wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be ruffled feathers by having to report to a junior officer.

“Ensign Kingsford,” Roberts said. “I have a disciplinary matter that requires your attention.”

Innes set down his datapad. “Certainly. Let’s step into the briefing room. Chief, you have the watch.”

“Aye, Sir,” Chief Houle said.

Innes indicated for the lieutenant to take a seat as they entered, and he shut the door behind them.

Roberts remained standing. “PFC Brooks was apprehended by station security last night, approximately twenty-three hundred hours. He was found in a restricted section of Ring F, a maintenance corridor connecting the transit hub to the residential blocks, and security only just now released him to our custody.”

“What was he doing in a restricted section?”

“The security report states he was using the corridor as a through-route. No compartments or equipment were accessed, however, the section carries a general access restriction from which military personnel are not exempt.”

Innes nodded. A restricted section violation was not a trivial matter, but the circumstances Roberts described sounded more like poor judgment than deliberate misconduct.

“I see.”

“Normally, this is something we would handle in-house, but Lieutenant Wexler’s directives stated that all infractions bypass the Marine chain of command and go directly to the CO for adjudication.”

“Where is Brooks now?”

“Confined to quarters pending disposition.”

“I think we can dispense with the lieutenant’s directive, although I would appreciate being kept in the loop for matters such as this that involve station authority, and I would like to speak with Brooks directly.”

“Why?” Roberts asked.

“Because this does involve station authorities, and I would like to hear the extent of the damage I will be dealing with in the morning. I would prefer to hear it from the PFC in question.”

“I see. I can escort you to his quarters, if you would like.”